Lugh fidgeted in place, he stood awkwardly next to a wheat field as Eriu talked with a man a few meters away, Miles and Kavanagh patiently stood guard next to her. Their little entourage caused quite a stir, and Lugh saw many people in the little shanty houses who gazed at their direction with curiosity, but too scared to come close.

It was simply inconceivable, that bottle of wine he prepared for her somehow ended up frying her brain instead of killing her, Lugh concluded. Completely demented and lacking in reason she decided to undertake a series of meaningless actions and, as her seemingly loyal servant, he could do nothing but comply, lest Kavanagh or another guard decide to rough him up at her whim.

What kind of noble goes down to the farms to speak to their serfs directly? When she talked about inspecting the fields yesterday, although a quirky request, he thought they would merely ride on horseback and inspect the serfs work, to make sure they did it correctly. Punishing serfs who tarried in their obligations was a common practice, after all, but he never imagined she would get down from her horse and actually talk with them.

He overheard part of their conversation, she was asking the farmer a number of inane questions, such as characteristics of the soil, what exactly they grew and when, whether the harvests were enough to feed their families, etc.

What did the color of the soil and it’s consistency matter? What noble cared to hear the opinions of the lowest of the low? Eriu was lucky she was the only true blue blood in the island, even him and the guards were only freemen. If any nobles saw this scene her reputation would hit rock bottom, much worse than being merely a drunkard.

At that point, the mainline of Oisin might not even need subterfuge to acquire the rights to the Petty Queendom.

Furthermore, what was an ecological survey? After she mentioned wanting to prepare one yesterday, he asked her to elaborate, but even after hearing the explanation it still made no sense to him. Why would she want to know what species of plant grow in the island? And talking to the hunters, more peasants… It's as if the queen lost all sense of etiquette overnight!

Not that she particularly cared for etiquette before, but at least she didn’t dally with mud farmers.

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“Lugh, are you taking notes?” Eriu stopped talking to the serf and looked at him instead. His purpose in accompanying her, apparently, was to record everything the serfs said about their current farming methods, and later the hunters’ information too, in writing, so that she would have an easier time looking at “the big picture” when improving production later on.

“Ah, sorry, your majesty. I was lost in thought for a second, could you please repeat what you had just talked about?” He braced himself but if the queen was angry about his mistake, she did not show it. She replied with a small nod and repeated what had just been said. While Lugh wrote it all down he wondered how the queen could be so calm. Given her usual temperament, he was sure she'd at least hit him for his mistake.

Well, he couldn’t be certain of anything after the poison failed. If it didn’t kill her, maybe it altered her whole personality? There was nothing he could do, other than follow her in this weird charade and try to minimize the damage she could cause to the island.

Unless… She didn’t change suddenly, and is actually just faking it? Could it be she discovered the wine was poisoned and is now acting out of the ordinary to uncover the traitor?

No, of course not, Eriu is as dumb as a sack of bricks, gullible too. She couldn’t think of something like that. But, maybe… Evie?

Just as Lugh handled all the administrative matters of the realm, he also handled all talks with merchants, he was the one who received the last wine shipment, and the one who poisoned a bottle before sending it off for the palace personnel to handle. Any wine drunk by her majesty would first be inspected by the head maid, he didn’t have much contact with Evie recently, but she struck him as much more competent than Eriu.

Shit, what about that rumor? He scooted over to Miles and asked him, “Is it true that her Majesty has given up drinking?”

“Hm? Seems so, Evie said her majesty refused the bottle yesterday.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck, she knows. Lugh thought, and his desperation grew by the send. He stared a hole into Eriu, concern flooding his mind, she noticed his stare and returned the look, curious as to what happened.

He smiled, nodded, and looked back to his notes, trying to act as natural as possible. She couldn’t have, could she? Just look at her, she doesn’t know anything. She drank the poisoned wine too, I’m certain of it. If Evie knew the Queen would have stopped drinking a day earlier.

He calmed himself down with a heavy sigh. It was probably just a change in mood, women are prone to moodiness, yeah. Along with the poisoned wine, it all just altered her state of mind a bit, it’s fine.

He would have another opportunity and be given charge as a Count of Lull under the Oisin mainline soon enough. He just had to put up with her for a little while longer, all he needed was a bit more time.